Amanda Leigh Evans and Anastasia Greer

The distinction between craftwork and fine art is commonly plotted along points of function, form, tradition, and, while often left unspoken, gender. However, in Nationale’s two-person exhibition, artists Amanda Leigh Evans and Anastasia Greer playfully dismantle these outdated associations by re-situating the feminine voice of pottery and quilting as a vital source of fluidity within sculpture and painting’s traditional rulebook.

Greer playfully flirts with the boundaries between artistic mediums. Atop delicate backgrounds of dyed raw silk, her compositions of pale, watery squares and sensual, bright blobs exude a whimsical, decidedly feminine softness. Greer mimics in these opposing patterns and colors both the measured designs and madcap collage of fabrics favored by quilt makers. Quilting’s geometric emphasis is likewise melded with the balanced grid foundation of painterly compositions. However, instead of stabilizing an internal chaos, Greer’s grids highlight the futility of such a fixed logic. Atop these rigid markings, swollen squiggles of paint squeezed directly from the tube disregard any call for two-dimensionality. Patterns trickle over the canvases’ edges, oblivious to the sanctity of the individual object. The final work, in this way, remains open with possibility—a weaving of infinite variations and associations.